to become the agents of change taking them out of the classroom to solve problems in their local communities level education inspiring science timeline at this time on. everything they do is being an alarmist it's being weak and it's being measured to support intelligence agencies are. to do things in secret that are a lawful or politically embarrassing all of the colleagues that i knew chose to retire from the n.s.a. we could not stand by and see all the work that they had done being used for mass surveillance digital dissidents at this time on al-jazeera.

we sent a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it the u.s. is late as response of the alleged chemical attack in syria its u.n. ambassador says new sanctions are being prepared against russia. no i'm maryam namazie this is al jazeera live from london also coming up hundreds of thousands of protesters take to the streets of boston lonna to demonstrate against the jailing of nine cats and separatist leaders. protests also taking place in india as thousands called the swift justice for sexual violence victims following two rape cases. and we'll bring you the latest from montenegro as elections where the ruling party is declared. the winner.

hello welcome to the program the united states is preparing new sanctions against russia over its support for the syrian government the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley says the sanctions will target companies dealing with equipment relating to president assad and chemical weapons use after the alleged attack in duma the sanctions will be announced on monday. so you will think that russian sanctions will be coming down secretary mineta will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with a quote that related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we send a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it. haley also said the u.s. will not pull out troops from syria until its goals have been accomplished or engage in direct talks with president assad this is inspectors from the international chemical weapons watched are prepared to begin their joint fact

finding mission in damascus under a ports from beirut. it's being described as the biggest victory for syrian president bashar al assad since the start of the conflict eastern huta has returned to state control after almost six years for weeks the enclave on the doorsteps of the capital damascus came under heavy fire hundreds of civilians were killed the pro-government alliance was also accused of using chemical weapons in the main town of duma before the last rebel group surrendered the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is sending a team to the site to investigate those claims the u.s. and its allies didn't wait for the organizations findings they said they had their own evidence and launched air strikes targeting syria's chemical weapons facilities . those strikes were not about threatening bashar assad's hold on power but since the bombings the message from the government has been one of defiance its army says

it is preparing for more offensives the priority seems to be clearing the remaining territories outside government control near the capital. in southern damascus a number of districts are under a government siege centered on your book some neighborhoods there are controlled by others by opposition fighters. the rebels also control areas of countryside in the central province of homs territory in the western region close to the damascus homs highway parts of the southern province of daraa the northwestern province of idlib desert territory close to the iraqi jordan border elsewhere under the control of u.s. backed syrian democratic force rebels is the kurdish area while the region west of the euphrates river is under the control of turkey back to rebels the government's priority now is to clear areas around damascus or what it calls useful syria because the location is strategically so important russian and syrian military

officers have been reaching out to some rebel factions who are already under siege giving them the choice to accept state rule or surrender if they don't want to face an offensive in it live however there has been no offer of reconciliation there are warnings of a humanitarian disaster if there is an offensive there it's the most densely populated rebel held area some two million syrians live there almost how displaced from towns recaptured by the government iran a backer of the syrian government says it could be the next target but so kandahar which is the border with jordan the government has been trying to penetrate rebel defenses for some time now the u.s. led strikes have not changed anything and threats of further actions by western powers are confined to the use of chemical weapons the syrian government still has the upper hand and it's pushing ahead with its military solution to the conflict.

beirut. you know our front says moscow missed join a push for a political solution to syria in his first public interviews in saturday's as strikes president emanuel macron accused by democrats in of being complicit in the suspected chemical attack and said he convinced president drum to keep troops in syria vancouver we convinced him that it's necessary to remain in syria and i think that on a diplomatic level beyond what happened beyond those three strikes which are one element we convinced him that we needed to remain in the long term level of an attack that has more from paris where this was the first time that we heard from him at all michael since france took part in those are airstrikes and what he used this interview for was really to clarify why he decided to take part alongside the u.s. and the u.k. now what he said was that there was concrete intelligence from the french the u.s. and and the u.k. that the syrian regime was behind a chemical attack in dumas he said that was

a violation of international law or a rights and france simply had to act a red line had been crossed it was also interesting because later in the interview he also suggested that he had played a role in convincing donald trump not to pull u.s. troops out of syria. ten days ago president ronald drum was saying that the united states had a duty to leave syria we convinced him it was necessary to stay even. keep it inefficiently ice-t. well michael also had some very strong words for russia saying that moscow was complicit with the syrian regime's use of chemical weapons little cause they are complicit they have not choose clearing themselves but they have bethought eclipse build the international community's inability check through diplomatic channels to stop the use of chemical weapons well i'm out all my corners hoping that these as strikes have created the sort of momentum needed now for real diplomatic push and

that is why the french foreign minister has said that france is preparing a draft resolution to present to the u.n. security council and on that resolution we understand will be a demand for a cease fire and more access for humanitarian aid. is tell tamin is the middle east and north africa program director for the crisis group is spoke to us about what it would take for everyone to come to the negotiating table usually in conflicts of long duration of the sort of great cruelty and suffering it takes the conviction on the part of all the parties that they cannot win and i think that the syrian regime on the other hand at the moment thinks to the contrary that it can still win because it is just defeated the rebels in duma and in eastern oughta so it's now wants to push on but i think the other areas that remain under rebel control are not easy for the regime to take because unlike the neighborhoods of damascus the

areas of and also the sudden the escalation zone actually also were negotiated by other parties russia turkey iran in the north in the south united states jordan and russia so for the regime the regime cannot simply march in use chemical weapons there and hope to defeat the rebels there and to displace the population. around three hundred fifty thousand protesters have flooded the streets of boss alona demonstrating against the jailing of nine cattle and separatist leaders for their role in last session referendum spanish authorities intend to try them on charges of rebellion including the former catalan president carter's push to mount sinai gager reports from barcelona. to the six months since catalonia has been governed under direct route from madrid and there was little in the way of

a political resolution to the crisis was. by no side is prepared to climb down from that position the spanish government maintains its line the illegal referendum last october was an act of rebellion and it's taking all measures it says on necessary to contain it measures that protesters here say have gone too far or you can be against the ban guns or you can be brought in abundance but. it's impossible to think that that's a normal thing and i don't want to kill down treat our politico prisoners in our politicians cannot do their job because they're not allowed to do that. so we are taking charge of the situation i think is the thinking behind the decision to jail catalan leaders would be that it would quell some of the fervor here but it could have been more of a mistaken one because that has only served to really galvanize people here pro independent is but also beyond that as well you say that their fundamental democratic rights are being threatened meanwhile the arrest of cattle and

politicians await trial on charges of rebellion a crime that carries a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison according to the lawyer representing the leaders there's little hope that spain's justice system would deliver a just verdict but the conduct of them over to the spanish authorities believe the stopped you before democracy you do not look people are. all the peaceful it brought him a better view. of the castle and parliament has called for legal charges to be brought against a spanish supreme court judge for refusing to release one of the leaders jordy sanchez he was nominated to become the next catalan president now catalan politicians have only until the end of may to nominate another leader before new regional elections are called if it comes to that it may shift the crisis but not necessarily in favor of those who put so much faith in the session is movement on the way i go al-jazeera barcelona. thousands of people have been rallying across india to call for swift justice in sexual violence cases it comes after

a politician from the ruling b j p party was arrested and charged with abducting and raping a teenage girl in pradesh nine months after it happened in another incident an eight year old girl was repeatedly raped and strangled in indian administered kashmir in january charlotte dallas has more. the arc the family has started a movement in india muslim nomads from indian administered kashmir they are the poster family for an epidemic of sexual abuse against girls and women by google data but the hub suited but she was a very beautiful and clever girl she was pretty why was she killed for what reason . refreeze is the mother of eight year old a c for police charges released this week saying see phil was abducted in january by eight hindu men including police offices and rape for six days before she was killed on. the why everyone knows the details about the case now and even god knows

these perpetrators must be asked why they killed such an innocent soul and it must be investigated. india's ruling b j p has defended the investigation into a seafoods death after the officer in charge took bribes to protect her killer. but activists saying the government is apathetic towards sexual abuse and that has created a culture of impunity in india. proteus which northern india after a sci fi story was shared and they grew on saturday when b j p lawmaker called it saying singa was a receipt for the rights of a teenage girl the alleged assault happened nine months ago but he was only charged after the victim six or self on fire. go back just a few years to twenty twelve and mass demonstrations gripped india when twenty three year old joseph singh was gang raped and tortured on a bus in delhi who did secure violence in india out of the shadows this week prime

minister in a ranger modi trying to get ahead of a fresh wave of fury if. it is still as a society as a country we are all ashamed of it in any part of the country or in any region incidents like these shake human sensitivities i want to assure the country that no corporate will be spared on the hills of indian administered kashmir modi's words mean little to eight year old saima she has lost a playmate. she misses a sea for a lot she tells us she misses her every day. impunity apathy exploitation would simon doesn't understand that little girls in india pay the price for them all the same. one day she took out horses to graze and someone killed her her body was found a week later they didn't allow us to bury her there she was buried in another place

with the sea for gone now she takes the horses to grace charlotte ballasts al-jazeera. so i have for you in the program trumps torrent of rage against james komi continues the u.s. president describes him as the worst f.b.i. director in history. when his irises white elephant will tell you about the controversial plan to clear the lungs in argentina's capital. welcome back let's stop by a look at weather conditions in a straight year and here temperatures are not too bad across in the southeast no certainly they're looking at highs of twenty seven adelaide twenty one but melbourne is struck in germany the wind is going to freshen from the south or southwest as you move through into tuesday we're going to see temperatures drop way

there for sydney at just ninety degrees still pleasant brisbane with a high of thirty that across western australia generally fine picture here but not particularly warm for perth with highs of just twenty degrees is a pretty unsettled picture across in new zealand too we've got rain right across the country during the course of monday some fairly strong winds across the north island and then this circulation clearing away from tasmania is going to be pushing him towards the south on and as they head on into tuesday so a wet and windy picture during the course of the day for christchurch and sunny for many western parts of the south on the north island probably seeing some showers would probably better compared with monday so let's head up into northeastern parts of asia here we've had a cold front sweeny through the region that's no clear way out in the pacific so no spring like weather seventeen degrees and sunshine in tokyo should be fine across the korean peninsula beijing also looking pretty woman moment highs of twenty five degrees celsius warmer than shanghai with highs here nineteen.

seven billion lights in this school. each one. to be seen. to be. that demonstrably. guy with. the human being. on. welcome back to the top stories this hour united states says it will not pull out

troops from syria or engage in direct talks with president bashar speaking on u.s. media ambassador nikki haley also admitted relations with russia were very strained with new sanctions to be introduced on monday. french president emmanuel macron says moscow must join a push for a political solution to the syria conflict and is accused of being complicit in the suspected chemical attack in duma. and there are other top story this hour three hundred fifty thousand protesters have rallied in the spanish city of basra alone or to demand the release of nine catalan separatists leaders. well in other stories we're following montenegro's ruling party has declared leader of it the winner of sunday's presidential election with nearly ninety percent of ballots counted you counted which has won just over half of the vote avoiding runoff is main opponent janet she won thirty three percent it's a major victory for djukanovic who defied russia to take his country in ten nato last year. reports and meets

a modern of it. in montenegro. in his almost thirty years long political career as a leader of democratic party of socialists he was six time a prime minister and once a president you can have each defied russian and old historic yellow one to negril when he led here this balkan contrie into nato last year he also led montenegro into independence in two thousand and six and now hoping to steer the country into the e.u. relations between montenegro and russia are more complicated since two thousand and sixteen when montenegrin or authorities accused russia for involvement india attempt of good itself with purpose to stop on to neutral from joining nato was score denied everything men expectation from voters which we interviewed is that the new president will improve living standards in place on creating more jobs but

also fight against corruption in organized crime and rule of law. now u.s. president donald trump has unleashed another torrent of abuse on twitter against the former f.b.i. director james comey in a series of tweets from challenges accusations komi makes in a new tell all book due to be published next week he says i never ask me for personal loyalty i hardly even knew the guy just another of his many lies his memos ourselves serving and fake and then in another tweet from calls komi slippery out of whack and the worst f.b.i. director in history or komi has hit back saying on twitter that his book is about ethical leadership and that trump serves as a counterpoint to that trump sakho me last year for his handling of the f.b.i. investigation into clinton's e-mail practices. i mean give me a break the guy knew exactly what he was doing he thought hillary clinton would win and he thought that this would give him some cover he thought that he made these decisions based on the political landscape and not on the facts of the case and

when the person that is supposed to leave the highest law enforcement agency in our country starts making decisions based on political environments and stead of on what is right and what is wrong that's a really dangerous position and i think that's one of the reasons there is such a huge bipartisan consensus that james comey doesn't have credibility and shouldn't have been leading the f.b.i. any longer. oh shavar chancy has more on this story now from washington james comey personally attacks don't trombones in his book and in the interview he's given to a major u.s. network comparing donald trump to a mole boss saying that trump is untethered to reality and it's clear what the white house strategy on the republican national committee strategy is in trying to counter this narrative it's to attack komi back to remind many of those or all sides of the u.s. political spectrum that they too have questions about committees trustworthiness

and his judgment so they're all going on the attempt. it's been a week since tens of thousands of gaza based employees of the palestinian authority should have been paid their monthly salaries paid based in the occupied west bank says it's a technical glitch but the workers union says it's a deliberate move to ramp up pressure on hamas which controls the gaza strip harry force that reports. for a week now they've been living on less than a promise the palestinian authority says the delay in paying its gaza employees salaries is a technical issue soon to be resolved but these men know that their colleagues in the occupied west bank and retirees here in gaza all had their paychecks days ago the head of their union says the p.a. isn't even taking his phone calls. we're talking about thirty thousand families this isn't a small number they paid employees in the west bank but they didn't pay us in gaza this makes the employees here really afraid. is waiting for his monthly pay

a stipend of two hundred ninety dollars awarded after he was shot and injured during a protest three years ago nearly half of it goes on rent for the tiny home he shares with his wife and two daughters their landlord is threatening a fiction. we are prisoners families of martyrs the injured they shouldn't put us in between the two sides they shouldn't connect the reconciliation problems with our salaries because that will destroy one hundred percent of the. the palestinian president and fatah head mahmoud abbas has been threatening further measures designed to increase the pressure on rival faction hamas which controls gaza a reconciliation deal signed in october has been teetering on collapse since almost before the ink a dried the p.a. insists on assuming full governmental control of gaza including over the weapons of hamas military wing something hamas rejects completely hamas demands continued payment of its tens of thousands of workers even after p.a.

staff who've been out of their jobs for more than a decade of hamas' rule resumed their roles. relations who worsened still by the bombing last month but the palestinian prime minister's convoy during a visit to gaza the p.a. leadership based in ramallah in the occupied west bank had already cut its gazan employees wages by thirty percent in an effort to squeeze hamas by restricting the employer of cash from which it takes account the p.a. employees union says that if the salaries don't turn up in the banks by wednesday they will launch wider scale protests but they're aware that their power is limited if as they suspect this is no technical issue then their wages depend on the political decision being made in ramallah are a force that al-jazeera gaza one is iris is one of south america's largest capitals and just like many other big cities thousands of people are living in slums where now the government there is trying to integrate the slums into the rest of the city providing the residents with access to the basic services they never had before to

raise a bar has the story. it's known as the white elephant an abandoned building in when a site is that for decades was home to hundreds of people that had nowhere else to live. but these days heavy equipment is working nonstop to bring it down i'm going to be done. we started to think in twenty eleven when the national government gave the city the building what we should do with it there were too many things happening here we decided to demolish it and start from scratch to transform the area. it was meant to be the largest hospital in that now america during the governmental. but when he was overthrown in one nine hundred fifty five the project was abandoned and since then it has been a symbol of neglect. or hoping to build a park schools and are currently building the new ministry of social development here the idea of this project is to increase the presence of the state in an area

that has been historically abandoned around ninety families used to live in this building in this conditions with no water electricity or access to basic services there were also one hundred forty families who lived outside the city has been offering all those occupying the area cash incentives to buy a house somewhere else. on the p.c. it was difficult to ask people to leave people didn't trust in our goodwill to help them leave this place slowly we started showing them that we want to help them improve their lives some families want to other places some of them are better off but there are ten families who do not want to leave. school works as a driver here says he's not ready to move. when you don't want to go because this is where we work from people know they can find us here i don't trust the government's intentions they leave and they don't finish what they started over

seven hundred thousand people live in slums in suburban when a site is the current administration says it's working to improve the living conditions of everyone in the city but you know. what happens in the city happens all over the country across latin america and in areas like education and health facilities force people to leave here the president is working on a play. and to improve slums around the country build roads and generate work. this is part of the biggest urban development project when a site is has seen in decades but it is reducing poverty in the country what will guarantee that those who left the white elephant won't end up living in another slum once again. that is how will i just see that when a scientist protests erupted outside a starbucks in philadelphia after two black men were arrested there for allegedly refusing to leave demonstrators entered the coffee shop calling for the manager to

be fired earlier this week an employee still called the police in the belief that the two men were trespassing starbucks has apologized over the issue which has stoked concerns about racial profiling senegal's historic coastal city of san louis is at the risk of this it is at risk of disappearing due to a rapidly rising sea levels houses in the former capital and now in escrow world heritage site already being swallowed by the ocean leaving hundreds of people homeless nicholas hack reports. when the tide is out what is left of his home resurfaces. this is where the kitchen was he tells his son. he shows him his grandparents bedroom. and the living area where they would all watch t.v. together the ocean swallowed the two story house i do shared with his ten relatives . it's a series of bad storms that destroyed the homes on the coast over the years the

ocean keeps pushing forward their lives on the brink in an archipelago barely one meter above sea level so louis was once friends as colonial capital in africa now tens of thousands of its residents have been displaced due to natural processes and human intervention. on a visit in february the president of france promised millions of dollars to save this unesco world heritage site and its inhabitants saying climate change was to blame for the destruction that forced france were urgently invest in the cost of marine life to help and protect its preservation macky sall has begun a membership program in the north to put up stone along the coastline in two thousand and three senegalese engineers dug a small canal in one of the islands facing the ocean thinking it would help evacuate flooded waters from the city center instead it made it worse the five meters wide canal is now five kilometers long. the city council is building an embankment made out of stone and metal people here say it will be no match to the

force of the ocean that has already destroyed concrete homes their fear is at the rate at which the ocean is rising here it's just a matter of decades before neighborhoods of this ancient city vanish under the water. displaced families are really committed to these makeshift tents on the edge of this to help. cure the rising temperatures and lack of water make it impossible to grow any food and so some have left the camp. not war or poverty but the changing climate they travel through the sahara desert and across the mediterranean to europe adding to the hundreds of millions of climate refugees now on the move in search for a safe place to live. the al-jazeera senegal

was more on everything with covering news and analysis right yeah. we recap the top stories now the united states says it won't pull out troops from syria until its goals have been accomplished it's also promising not to engage in any direct talks with president bashar assad speaking on us media ambassador nikki haley also admitted that relations with russia was strained over its support for the syrian government and that new sanctions are being prepared so you will see that russian sanctions will be coming down secretary will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we sent a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it meanwhile francaise moscow

must join a push for a political solution in syria and his first public interview since the airstrikes president accused him of putin of being complicit in the suspected chemical attack and said he convince president trump to keep troops in syria and other stories we're covering at least three hundred fifty thousand protesters have rallied in the spanish city of basra loner to demand the release of secessionist leaders the protesters took over many of the city's main streets and yellow in support of the catalan independence movement spanish authorities intend to try the nine separatist leaders on charges of rebellion including the former catalan president on his bridge to mount. thousands have been rallying across india to call for swift justice in sexual violence cases it comes after a politician from the ruling b j p party was arrested and charged with abducting and raping a teenage girl in to pradesh nine months after it happened in another incident an eight year old girl was repeatedly raped and strangled in indian administered

kashmir in january. well the negras ruling party has declared leader mello djukanovic the winner of sunday's presidential election with nearly ninety percent of the ballots counted djukanovic has won fifty three percent of the vote of voiding a runoff is main opponent live in janet she won thirty three percent it's a major victory for djukanovic who defied russia to take his country into nato last year. as the headlines it's witnessed a book of huntress coming up next that's it for myself from the team in london fifty three member states. one iconic figurehead as leaders of the commonwealth descend on london for its biennial meeting al-jazeera asks how much does the commonwealth matter in today's world and where does it go after queen elizabeth full of the commonwealth heads of government meeting on al-jazeera.